"On departing this earth, it is not only their material possessions that human beings must leave behind. Everything that has come to them in the realms of intelligence and feeling from other people, books, works of art and so on also disappears, unless they have profoundly lived it and verified it. And if they have not done so, when they return in the next incarnation, they must learn everything again, and with a great deal of difficulty. Just because someone can speak or write on a variety of subjects is no proof that he truly understands them, and he must start all over again from the beginning. Let us look further: people get married and have children, and many of them are as helpless and lost in this situation as if they were experiencing it for the first time. Yet they have experienced it many times in previous incarnations, but as they have never truly sought to deepen their role and their responsibilities as husband, wife, or parent, it is always as if they were discovering them for the first time. As a result, they make mistakes and suffer. Therefore you must exert yourselves so that you do not find yourself at such a loss in a future incarnation."